In this installment of Introduction to Common Law, Prof. Richard Epstein of NYU School of Law gives a simple example that illustrates why moral relativism doesn't work as a principle of social organization.

Professor Epstein, in this series on the Common Law, provides an alternative to the conventional view that property rights are arbitrarily created by the state, and therefore can be changed at will by the state. A few simple rules, he argues, are universal principles of social organization, consistent across time and culture, which form the basis of social gains.

Professor Epstein is the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Professor of Law Emeritus and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago.

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